This application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/470,587, filed May 15, 2003.
The present invention relates to dry erase boards, which are also known as write on—wipe off boards, and, in particular, to a dry erase board including an image in relief.
Dry erase boards are well known in the art. They are found in classrooms (replacing chalkboards) and in board rooms (often replacing flip charts). Smaller dry erase boards are used on doors, walls, and lockers, in homes, dormitories, restaurants, and various other places where people want to jot down notes. The user writes on the dry erase board with a dry erase marker and then simply wipes off the marking using a cloth or dry eraser.
Some dry erase boards include colorful images, which make them more eye-catching than the typical white board. There has been a desire to further enhance the boards to provide an image in relief on the boards, to make them more eye-catching or appealing, but so far there has been no effective, practical way to achieve that goal. Some people provide a separate frame with a raised image that surrounds the dry erase board, but nobody has made a dry erase board that includes an image in relief on the dry erase writing surface itself.
The type of material that will accept an image typically is not the type of material that can also repel the ink from a dry erase marker so that it can easily be wiped off without requiring the use of solvent. For the few products that have managed to provide both a dry erase surface and an image, the materials and construction methods that are used do not permit thermoforming to put the image in relief. When the current inventors began trying to produce such a produce, they were told that it could not be done—that there would be problems with delamination, with bubbles between the laminate and substrate, and so forth.